This week the Indian selectors will pick the squads for the Australian tour. The meeting will be the debut for two selectors on the panel including its chairman Sunil Joshi, the former India left-arm spinner, who joined the panel along with former India fast bowler Harvinder Singh in March.
The Australian series is the first bilateral engagement for Virat Kohli's side since March when the home ODI series against South Africa had to be abruptly halted as tremors of the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world.
The tour will stretch into 2021 and is scheduled to start in Sydney on November 26 with three T20s, followed by three ODIs in early December followed by the four-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting with a day-night Test in Adelaide from December 17. The tour will end on January 19 with final Test in Brisbane.
Keeping in mind the travel guidelines and restrictions owing to the pandemic, it is understood the selection panel will pick a larger contingent in the range of minimum 30 players. This will also include some players who will feature among the reserves to help with the training in the absence of local net bowlers.
Following are the big questions that Joshi's panel are likely to deliberate on at the meeting which would also be attended by Kohli virtually.
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Shaw, Gill, Rahul - who should be the third opener?
In New Zealand Rohit Sharma was absent from the Test leg, forced to return home due a calf injury. In Australia Sharma will reunite with Mayank Agarwal, who made his debut in the Boxing Day Test in 2018-19 tour. Both Sharma and Agarwal opened for India during the home season last year spanning five Tests.
Agarwal played in the Australia series two years back only because Prithvi Shaw picked up a freak injury in the field in a warm-up match. Agarwal's opening partner in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests was Hanuma Vihari, who had never done the job, but was promoted after M Vijay and KL Rahul had failed in the first two Tests.
India would want a third specialist opener especially in the absence of any first-class cricket for eight months. Shaw has been the team management's preferred choice ever since he made a century on Test debut in 2018. He made a half century in second Test in New Zealand, but his indifferent IPL form including his technique against pure fast bowling has once again opened the room for debate.
As for Rahul, he remains the preferred man to take over from MS Dhoni in limited-overs cricket, which will be further enhanced after his spectacular form this IPL with Kings XI Punjab. But Rahul has struggled in red-ball cricket for a while before he was dropped from the Test team after the 2019 series in West Indies where he managed 101 runs in four innings with a highest of 44. Not only did Rahul lose his position to Sharma, but also was not included in the India A squad for the Test series against New Zealand A earlier this year.
ESPNcricinfo LtdShubman Gill, who has struggled to up the ante opening for Kolkata Knight...
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